Adams Tight Lies™ Fairway Wood Review
It’s been well documented that the state of Adams Golf is somewhat of in flux. I can only be grateful that other golf media outlets have put in the time in to tell the very interesting story about one of the more notable manufacturers in the business. What has gotten lost in all the hoopla surrounding the Adams story is the fact that they’re still manufacturing outstanding golf clubs, and we got our hands on one that I believe will help solidify Adams’ name as a premier club maker.
The new Tight Lies™ fairway wood from Adams is a virtual ‘talk to the hand’ statement made to the golfing world. The innovative design team again has come up with a new variation of their widely successful and award winning slot technology. This time by implementing what they call “Ghost Slot Technology” Adams placed a slot on the top of the crown in addition to the location on the underside of the club.
They attempted to camouflage this new feature by painting it in the same matte finish as the rest of the crown. Not being fully up to date on all the new technology that is coming out, I was unaware of this new Ghost Slot when the club arrived and it caught me by surprise.
My first thought was someone in manufacturing had messed up and we received a “bad” club. The Ghost Slot gets its namesake from its near invisible appearance. I say near because it stood out like a bad surface crack on a brand new Pro V1. Yikes.
Once I realized I wasn’t in possession of an assembly line snafu, but instead a fancy new piece of modern technology, I couldn’t wait to put this new fairway wood through some abuse and see if the new Ghost Slot carried any mystical properties.
As I mentioned earlier the Adams Tight Lies™ have a matte black finish to them that I really enjoy addressing the ball with. The black matte look has always been a crown color scheme I’ve enjoyed, which also adds to my angst considering I can’t hit a Ping driver to save my life. Thankfully the paint scheme has little to do with how I swing and more to do with making the club visually appealing to the highest level.
It does look sharp, there is no argument there. The stock shaft that was sent with the club has a radiant electric blue color that Adams did a fantastic job accenting into the head cover. This certainly isn’t the Adams Tight Lies™ clubs from years past. It’s sleek, has some outstanding wow factor when it comes to appearance and Adams did a great job in embracing the fact that players want to make a statement with their clubs – not only on the course but also while they’re tucked away nicely in the golf bag.
The size of the clubhead when I first took it out of the box seemed to be on the smaller side (maybe it’s that matte paint scheme), but when I compared it to my other fairways woods it wasn’t as big of a difference. The clubhead design is very unique and, in this bloggers opinion, Adams has this area of the market locked up.
It’s a love or leave kind of appeal when it comes to Adams and I had a hands-on experience with their unique look a few years ago. I was desperate to find a Hybrid I could hit and heard a lot of good stories about the new line from Adams. So I headed down to one of my local shops and went through the rack looking for clubs to demo. After listening to the salesman’s rhetoric about how great the new Rocketballz Hybrids are, I was finally allowed to take the Adams for a test drive. Its unique head design didn’t sit well with me right away, and even though I hit it fairly decent, the launch monitor showed I was hitting the Rocketballz 15-20 yards further . . . so on that day I ended up leaving with a club other than the Adams.
I messed up because I let a salesman who gets paid to push TaylorMade gear influence me to make a purchase based on a few swings on a beefed-up launch monitor.
My inner hostilities towards said place and salesman aside, the truth is I wasn’t happy with how the Adams looked and that was part of the decision to go the other way, so I get it if you’re in the group of players that have issue with the Adams look.
With this new line of Tight Lies™ though, the oddly shaped configuration of models from the past have been changed and it looks a lot more streamlined, much more aggressive, and carries with it the look of a club that’s going to do some punishment to many a golf balls.
According to Adams, by utilizing what they call a “Low-profile upside down” design the club has an increase in surface area that is lower on the face which leads to a more consistent ball strike and a higher launch angle.
A little background on my fairway wood game: it stinks. I mean it’s really bad. While I can handle a driver without much of an issue, my fairway woods and hybrids are still a random call to action, sometimes my game shows up and most times it’s a debacle of swing.
Because of the inadequacies with my fairway clubs, I was intrigued as hell when reading up on the new Tight Lies™ and the claims by Adams that with their new Ghost Slot Technology along with the tri-sole and low profile design, getting the ball to launch higher was now even easier. Talk about resonating.
Many words have been used to describe the ball flight from my fairway woods, things like ugly, disturbing, pigeon murdering, etc. But never has anyone verbally proclaimed “Man… I love your high ball flight.” It just doesn’t happen.
While I’m still very far away from ball flight patterns like players such as Jason Day and his super high ball flight, I am seeing a noticeable difference in the many sessions I’ve had with the Adams. The results have been exactly what they claimed in an overwhelming fashion. My ball flight is radically higher with a little penetrating action to boot.
That has opened my eyes up the possibility of hitting some shots that just weren’t possible a few weeks ago. Cut to my most recent round where I found myself in a nasty spot. My tee shot of the 18th green wasn’t exactly ideal and I had one hell of shot in front of me if I had any chance of breaking 90.
Laying in front of the first fairway water hazard, a nice pond/lake that splits the 15th and 18th fairways, I had a 225 yard carry over the lake, a grouping of 60 year old trees (that’s not a common thing out here in Vegas) and the other half of the lake on the other side of the trees. Not exactly the way I was hoping to wrap up my round.
I could have made the safe play and hit my shot 90° opposite of the hole and got myself back in the fairway. A few months ago no matter what was in my bag that would have been the play, it’s the smart play for a player of my skill set.
There was no way in hell I was going to pass up this opportunity to hit a shot that was so foreign to me in years past, now that I had the Adams 3W in my bag.
Knowing how well I have been hitting the club, not only in my practice sessions but also during my warmup for the round I’m talking about, I went into the shot feeling confident as ever. It was a crazy shot to try and pull of but I stepped up and smashed the ball hitting by far the best shot of the day.
Not only did I carry the lake and those old, tall, terrifying trees but I ended up in a phenomenal spot dead center in the fairway some 230 yards from where I stood.
My playing partner was even more impressed than I was as he stood in the fairway, arms outstretched, bowing repeatedly like I just hit the winning home run in game seven of the series.
OK, that didn’t happen, he did however give me a very rewarding high-five followed by a verbal ‘outstanding shot sir’ as we headed up to hit our approach shots.
Practicing with the club was one thing but actually seeing it perform in a real game situation that I used to fear was enough to convince me that Adams isn’t going anywhere. The ball flight and height I’m getting is a complete game changer for me.
Prior to putting the Adams in my bag anything from 200-225 yards out was layup city for me. No more, though. Knowing I can get the ball up in the air and still be able to get the ball to those distances, for me, is going to change dramatically how I attack holes in the future.
What I fear is the Hybrids are just as good. I’ve somewhat fallen in love with my 4iron but if I can accomplish with a hybrid the same results I’m seeing with this new Tight Lies™ 16° 3 Wood, my bag is in store for some more upgrades!
The new set of Adams Tight Lies™ can be purchased at your local golf retail store and online at the Adams Golf Website.
The 16° 3 Wood retails for $199.00. There is also a titanium version you can get for $249.00 I can only image what that club can do to a ball!
I firmly believe Adams Golf is making a statement with this new line. The Design is flawless and the performance has made me shelf the several 3 Woods I’ve been rotating over the last couple of seasons.
The name may be one that has been around for a while but without a doubt this isn’t your fathers Tight Lies™.
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